A Collection of Punk Fairytales

A Washington D.C. punk club gets a visit from very ancient—and dangerous—guests. The mythic and the mundane collide at a general store in the segregated South. A young boy becomes apprentice to the Angel of Death.

Charles Saunders, author of the “Imaro” series, says of Cotman’s blend of the contemporary and mythical: “The Jack Daniels Sessions EP is revolutionary, riveting and remarkable. Elwin Cotman’s prose grabs you from word one, and you don’t want it to let you go. This book marks the unveiling of a major new voice in science fiction and fantasy.” The Jack Daniels Sessions EP takes new spins on mythic tropes, while telling deeply human stories. In “Dead Teenagers,” a high school student’s relationship troubles lead her into direct contact with urban myth. “How Brother Roy Lost His Dog, Twice” is a story reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston, in which a Florida logger has to adjust his grieving process when he finds the dead do not stay at rest. Cotman uses folk vernacular in particular pieces, adopting the language of oral storytelling for these uniquely American tales.

Michael S. Begnal, author of Ancestor Worship, says: “Cotman’s interests are wide-ranging: Punk rock intersects with D.C.’s Dominican community, African-American folktale intersects with Greek myth, Goth teen suburban angst in 1990s Ohio sits side by side with racist atrocity in the pre-Civil Rights South . . . Yeah, there’s magic in some of these stories, but the real magic is in Cotman’s words themselves—stark and deadpan one moment, lushly descriptive the next.”

Elwin Cotman is pursuing his MFA at Mills College in Oakland, CA. He studied Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Maryland. He is currently at work on an audiobook and a novella. Cotman’s website is www.lookmanoagent.blogspot.com.